Robust optimization methodologies for water supply systems design

Abstract

Abstract. Water supply systems (WSSs) are vital infrastructures for the well-being of people today. To achieve good customer satisfaction the water supply service must always be able to meet people's needs, in terms of both quantity and quality. But unpredictable extreme conditions can cause severe damage to WSSs and lead to poorer levels of service or even to their failure. Operators dealing with a system's day-to-day operation know that events like burst water mains can compromise the functioning of all or part of a system. To increase a system's reliability, therefore, designs should take into account operating conditions other than normal ones. Recent approaches based on robust optimization can be used to solve optimization problems which involve uncertainty and can find designs which are able to cope with a range of operating conditions. This paper presents a robust optimization model for the optimal design of water supply systems operating under different circumstances. The model presented here uses a hydraulic simulator linked to an optimizer based on a simulated annealing heuristic. The results show that robustness can be included in several ways for varying levels reliability and that it leads to more reliable designs for only small cost increases.

Multi‐Objective Optimization Models for the Design of Water Distribution Networks by Exploring Scenario‐Based Approaches

“…The same case study and scenarios of the previous work were employed by Marques et al. (2012), who extended the RO model with the insertion of a pumping station to cope with the abnormal conditions and avoid oversizing the pipes.…”

“…The weights/probabilities of each scenario can be obtained from a "panel of experts" using methods like the so-called Delphi methods (Green et al, 2007). The same case study and scenarios of the previous work were employed by Marques et al (2012), who extended the RO model with the insertion of a pumping station to cope with the abnormal conditions and avoid oversizing the pipes.…”

Robust Design of a Real-Life Water Distribution Network under Different Demand Scenarios

“…Robust optimization has also found different applications on water supply systems. Watkins and McKinney [65] introduced robust optimization in water resources problems as a tool to assess the tradeoff between cost, systems performance and reliability; Carr et al [46,66] addressed the problem for sensor placement in municipal water systems; Cunha and Sousa [45,46] and Marques et al [67] applied a robust optimization approach to the design of WDN. In [45] the objective function comprises the minimization of the total cost consisting of the sum of two terms: (1) the deviation of the networks construction cost, and (2) a penalty cost for the deviation from the desirable nodal heads.…”

Locating Leaks with TrustRank Algorithm Support

“…Simulated annealing is a randomized search method [59] that is known to quickly find good solutions, even in extended search spaces. This method has been used to solve different problems from the water supply field, as documented in the literature: least cost design of WDN [60], robust design of WDN [61,62], optimal operation of WDN [63], optimal design and operation of WDN [55,64], pressure management in WDN [65], District Metered Areas design [66], and optimization of reservoir operation [67,68].…”